In brief

Georgia Tech admits to 17 eligibility violations

By wire services
Published September 4, 2004

ATLANTA - Georgia Tech acknowledged Friday that it certified 17 athletes as eligible when they had not met the NCAA's academic requirements. Athletic director Dave Braine said the violations, which Georgia Tech considers secondary, were reported to the NCAA. The school offered to penalize itself, but did not reveal the nature of its proposed sanctions.

"Certainly there was no deliberate intent to incorrectly certify student-athletes," Braine said in a statement. "At the time, we believed that these athletes had met all the necessary criteria. We are committed to doing things right, so when it was brought to our attention that there might be some discrepancies, we performed a very exhaustive review of all the records."

The violations occurred over the past five years. Names of the athletes were not released. All but one earned the required 24 credit hours for the academic year with an acceptable grade-point average, the school said.

WOMEN'S SOCCER: FSU defeated visiting Georgia 1-0. ... UF lost 3-0 to host North Carolina. The match was the first between the two since the 1998 NCAA championship, which UF won 1-0.

WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL: UCF opened the season 0-2 with a 21-30, 18-30, 30-22, 21-30 loss at LSU and a 15-30, 19-30, 25-30 loss in its second match of the day against Rice. ... FSU defeated Stetson 30-14, 30-11, 30-12 at the FSU Invitational. The Seminoles also defeated Sam Houston State.

HURRICANE FRANCES: Citrus, Sunshine speedways closed

Citrus County Speedway and Sunshine Speedway in Pinellas County canceled tonight's races. Larry MacMillian, the Citrus track's announcer, said the decision was made Friday because "protection of family and property takes priority over racing this weekend. We are the most concerned about lightning striking."

HORSES: All live racing and simulcasting was canceled Friday and today at Calder Race Course in Miami. The Juvenile Showcase was postponed from today to Monday, and the Miami Mile Breeders' Cup Handicap from Monday to Sept. 11. SOCCER: Today's World Cup qualifier between Mexico and St. Vincent and the Grenadines was postponed because the visitors couldn't leave the Miami area to reach Pachuca de Soto, Mexico.

BOXING: Ex-world champ arrested

Former world champion Ricardo Mayorga was arrested on suspicion of rape, but released several hours later in Managua, Nicaragua. Mayorga was freed after his lawyer charged that the arrest warrant used to detain the boxer had expired. But the arrest left the boxer uncertain about the status of his Oct. 2 middleweight bout in New York against Felix Trinidad. Mayorga was arrested at Managua's international airport after a complaint was filed Wednesday by a 20-year-old woman who said the boxer had invited her to a hotel, beat her and sexually abused her, police spokesman Marlon Montano said. The bout was to be the first after a two-year retirement for Trinidad, a 31-year-old former welterweight, junior middleweight and middleweight champion. Mayorga is 27-1-4 with 23 knockouts.

ET CETERA

OLYMPICS: The Hungarian Olympic Committee urged hammer thrower Adrian Annus to return his medal after he was stripped of the gold for refusing to take a follow-up drug test. The committee also asked that Annus provide a DNA sample to determine whether the urine samples used by the laboratory were his.

TRACK AND FIELD: Pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and steeplechaser Saif Saaeed Shaheen set world records at the Van Damme Memorial meet in Brussels, Belgium. Isinbayeva beat her world record by a half-inch, leaping 16-13/4, and Shaheen finished the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 7 minutes, 53.63 seconds, breaking Brahim Boulami's 7:55.28. Felix Sanchez's three-year winning streak in the 400 hurdles ended when he left the race halfway through, apparently with a left thigh injury.

Times correspondent Dawn Reiss contributed to this report, which used information from Times wires.